Dropping Down to 16, 15,…

January. A month of transition, in more ways than one. A month of new beginnings, and a month where one foot seems to be facing towards the future, and another foot is in the past. Tuesday night’s Mega Millions drawing was a shout-out to a very recent past, and it had an interesting split. The Pattern, General Order, and Specific Order had all previously played at or near the end of last year. The repeating Three-Number Combinations of the evening made their debut in 2015.

The {3-1-1-1} Pattern made its 55th appearance in the January 17th Mega Millions drawing. The occasion was marked by winning numbers 20, 31, 54, 56, 59, and MB 3.

Like the {3-1-1-1} Pattern, the [1-1-3-1] General Order was last seen in the December 30th drawing. Now with 22 appearances, this General Order has played in 40% of the 55 drawings that the {3-1-1-1} Pattern has appeared and in 6.49% of all drawings.

The 011301 Specific Order made its sixth appearance, its first since the November 29th, 2016 drawing. As of Tuesday, this Specific Order has played in 27.3% of the 22 drawings where the [1-1-3-1] General Order appeared, 10.9% of the 55 drawings where the {3-1-1-1} Pattern has played, and in 1.77% of all Mega Millions drawings.

Tuesday’s drawing gifted us with two repeating Three-Number Combinations:

31, 56, 59 (debuted January 20th, 2015)

20, 56, 59 (debuted November 27th, 2015)

Snippet of Three-Number Combinations. The repeating Combinations are in the red box.

What makes the first Three-Number Combination fascinating is that it made its second appearance almost exactly two years to the day it debuted. Imagine how impressive it would’ve been if this Combination had played this Friday instead!

Speaking of Friday, what will Mega Millions have in store for that night?